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NEWS
infocus magazine
News Many students, parents and colleagues were saddened to learn that just after the start of the summer holiday, Old Birkonain Jack Hussey passed away peacefully following a year long battle with cancer. Jack became very poorly during his A Level examinations in the summer of 2015 and was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma cancer. Jack joined Birkenhead School in 2004 at the start of Year 3. There was absolutely no question he was a model student, diligent, sensitive, academic and sporting too. Mr Clark wrote on his end of year 10 report, “Jack seems to send his teachers rushing for their thesaurus to unearth new adjectives to describe his qualities and achievements.” Jack was a quiet and private person who rarely sought to be the centre of attention. In May 2016, around 10 months into his fight against cancer Jack, possibly for the first time in his life, did draw attention to himself when
Jack Hussey
Jack in San Francisco
11 November 1996 - 11th July 2016 th
he took the decision to do some fund raising for research into the diseases that were ultimately to take his life. His story, (you can see it by typing “help jack make a difference” into a google search engine) touched the hearts of all in our School community and there was huge support for his fund raising, from individual contributions to several organised events. To date his fund raising has reached around £55,000 and is still on-going. Jack’s parents, Ged and Julie, are extremely appreciative of all we have done as a community to support Jack and are determined, over the next year or so, to continue the fund raising started by Jack, with a target to raise £100,000. There are a number of events planned this academic year; a non-uniform day in February, a cycle ride from London to Amsterdam in May, and a Ball planned for later in the year.
It is appropriate that a new trophy will be presented annually at Prize-giving, the ‘Jack Hussey Award’, to be given to the student who, during the academic year, is known to have raised the most money for charitable causes.
Mr Edmunds
Out of this world - students meet astronaut Tim Peake Six students across the breadth of the School had the fantastic opportunity to meet astronaut Tim Peake and give a presentation at the Principia Conference in November. The students, from Prep and Seniors, travelled to the University of York to take part in the Principia Mission’s Schools’ Conference where 500 children from across the country were chosen to take part, and 43 schools chosen to present their interest in space activities.
‘wonderful to be here’ The conference was run by the UK Space Agency to celebrate the imaginative work that children across the country have done, linked to Tim Peake’s Principia mission to the International Space Station. Tim said to the students, “It’s wonderful to be here and I’m really looking forward to hearing what you’ve been doing during my time in space.”
Birkenhead School students, Michael and John from Year 4, Harvey from Year 8, Clara and Elizabeth from Year 9, and Seb from Lower 6, have all been actively involved in space related activities over the past year and were chosen to represent the School at the conference.
They worked together to produce their presentation, entitled ‘Timspirational’ which included pictures and information about their activities that were inspired by Tim Peake.
Pictured: Tim Peake with the students and Science Teachers Dr Jarvis and Mrs Tharme.